One way to keep the pretention to a minimum at your serious cocktail bar? Build it above a no-frills pub specializing in Irish whiskey and draft beer. At The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog, the Financial District's newest drinking destination, you'll find exactly that—thoughtfully-crafted period cocktails upstairs, and well-poured pints at a belly-up kind of bar on the ground floor. More

This swanky new Financial District lounge is one of the most highly anticipated openings of the season, with no shortage of big names at the helm. Alex Day and David Kaplan (who founded Death and Co. in the East Village) developed the cocktails along with bar manager Scott James Teague, formerly of Pegu Club. Though Kaplan, Day, and Teague are known for classic cocktails, Demi Monde's bartenders won't be stirring up the drinks you've seen a million times before. More